ATHENS, Ga.—The Gators held on for a 4-3 win over Georgia to sweep the series in Athens.
 
Florida (30-13, 13-8 SEC) used a strong start from Jackson Kowar and held on late as Georgia (17-28, 5-16 SEC) scored three runs in the eighth inning.
 
Kowar cruised through seven innings before the Bulldogs got to him in the eighth. He allowed three runs on six hits with all three runs coming in the eighth inning.
 
Kowar improved to 7-0 on the season, tied for the most wins in the SEC.
 
Florida took an early lead on JJ Schwarz's sixth home run of the season. After Nelson Maldonado legged out an infield single, Schwarz hit an opposite field homer into the right field bleachers for a 2-0 lead.
 
Maldonado and Schwarz each extended their hit streaks to six games, the longest active streak on the team.
 
The Gators played some small ball in the fourth to add another run. Ryan Larson led off with a line drive single to left field and moved to second on a sacrifice bunt from Christian Hicks.
 
After a wild pitch moved Larson to third, Mark Kolozsvary sent a fly ball to deep center that made it 3-0 after Larson tagged and headed home.
 
Another insurance run came home in the top of the sixth. Maldonado walked to open the inning and Schwarz singled to put runners on the corners.
 
Hicks hit a chopper to second that was mishandled, allowing Maldonado to score from third for a 4-0 lead.
 
Kowar hit the first batter in the eighth inning then allowed a single to Tucker Bradley to set UGA up with a scoring opportunity.
 
Cam Shepherd capitalized, lining a double to left center to bring home two runs. After a pitching change, Mitchell Webb made it a one-run game with a RBI single.
 
Sophomore Michael Byrne came on and escaped the jam in the eighth. He then pitched a scoreless ninth inning for his 11th save of the season, second-most in the league.
 
Florida will return home this week for a six-game home stand, beginning Tuesday night against Florida A&M at 6:30 p.m. The Gators will host Jacksonville on Wednesday at 6:30 p.m.
 
Next weekend, Ole Miss will travel to Gainesville for a three-game series starting Friday night at 6:30 p.m.
 
 
POSTGAME QUOTES
Head Coach Kevin O'Sullivan
"I'm really, really proud of the way we played this weekend. To start off, offensively JJ Schwarz had a really good weekend, went 3-for-4 today. Nelly has been having really good at bats for the last 3-4 weeks it seems like, got a couple knocks today. I thought all-in-all, the lefty they threw out there, Smith, had a really good arm. He was up to 94, we could tell early on he was going to be a good challenge, especially for our left-handed hitters.
 
"I think that's the best Jackson has thrown all year long. Obviously he didn't want to hit the leadoff man in the eighth, but he had all three pitches working and kept his pitch count down. Garrett came in and got a big out against Curry with the fly ball, he got his sinker in there. Horvath went left-on-left and got the big strikeout and then Michael Byrne got his third save of the weekend.
 
"I also want to mention, that's the best defensive game I think I've ever seen from an infielder with Dalton Guthrie. He made some plays today that were … I don't know, I've never seen anything like it. It was just an amazing day defensively for him. That's probably the biggest reason that we were able to win the game."